Traveling to China is immensely rewarding and somewhat complicated, especially if you’re planning to do it on your own. For starters, very few Chinese speak any passable English, even those who work in the hospitality industry. It is also safe to assume that you do not speak and read Chinese, which makes it extremely difficult to navigate in the huge Chinese cities, find tourist attractions and order food in the restaurants.
There is, however, another way to visit China – you can join one of many tour groups that offer very attractively priced packages for foreign tourists. A group usually consists of about 50 people. They are assembled in the United States (or your own home country) and flown into Beijing, which usually serves as the starting point. In this case you will get an English-speaking tour leader, whose job it is to look after your group, bus / plane transportation from one city to another as well as the local guides in every city.
Recently, I had an opportunity to join a group, which had flown into Beijing in the early March of 2016 and visited Suzhou, Wuxi, Hangzhou and Shanghai. Here are some of my observations, warnings and suggestions, in case you’d like to follow my example.
Chinese Visa
All US citizens must obtain a Chinese visa prior to traveling to China.
If you live in a city, which has a Chinese Consulate General, then you can fill out a visa application on the Consulate’s website and drop it off in person, along with your passports, application fee, photographs, travel itinerary, etc. Follow the Consulate’s instructions carefully otherwise you will be running around gathering additional documentation at the most inconvenient time and place. You can also drop off the paperwork for your friends, but make sure to have a copy of their driver’s license.
You will have to return a few days later in order to pick up your passport along with the visa.
If it is not convenient for you to drop off and pick up the visas in person, then you can hire an agency which specializes in the Chinese visa transactions. They will handle the paperwork for an additional fee.
The Group Tours – Pro’s and Con’s
Very often the group trips to China are sponsored by various Chinese government agencies, hotels, airlines, cooperatives, etc. Therefore, your price per person will be very attractive, especially during the off-season periods.
This also means that your tour will include visits to the sponsors’ places of business, e.g. tourist stores, factories and farms, that will try and sell you all kinds of merchandize (more on that later) and you will spend a few hours a day either shopping for silk, jade, tea, pearls, etc. or waiting for the other 50 members of your group to finish their shopping.
Most likely you will be staying in large hotels far removed from the city centers and major tourist attractions. The hotels tend to be modern and clean, but are overcrowded with waves of tour buses and visitors.
Your food options will consist of visiting cavernous restaurants, which cater to the mass tourism. This means that large amounts of bland food will be waiting for your bus to arrive at around lunch and dinner time. Don’t expect to taste any culinary masterpieces at these places, but please do not assume that the food in China is not good. Just remember that you are not eating the real Chines food!
The Internet
Most of the hotels and restaurants will provide you with a free WIFI Internet connection. Be warned, however, that this is the Chinese version of the Internet, which is being constantly monitored and sanitized by the so-called “Great Wall” software. This means that you may have trouble accessing some of the popular websites, such as Google / Gmail, Facebook, Instagram, etc.
One way to avoid the Chinese restrictions is to install and use a Virtual Private Network (VPN) app on your laptop, mobile phone, etc. If you need help with getting it done, then ask your kids to help you.
Mobile Phones
Our T-Mobile phones were behaving very strangely in China, to say the least. We were supposed to get free 2G data roaming and 20 cent-per-minute voice roaming. The only consistent and reliable services we received were text messaging and voice calls. For one reason or another, the mobile Internet connection was spotty at best and, most of the time, did not work at all. It may be related to the omnipresent “Great Wall” supervision of our emails and apps, or maybe explained by the excruciatingly slow 2G connection by T-Mobile.
Shopping
A word of advice – do not buy anything in the tourist stores where you will be driven by the tour bus. You are certain to greatly overpay for whatever merchandize you decide to buy. Just as it is the case with the process of feeding massive tour groups, this is not the real shopping experience that one can and should have in China.
The authentic and extremely productive shopping is done when you “escape” from your group and spend a few hours (perhaps, days?) at the large and well-known markets in Beijing (Silk Market, Pearl Market, etc.) and Shanghai (near The Science and Technology Museum).
The list of potential purchases is endless: custom tailored clothing, shoes, outerwear, sporting equipment, silk products, tea, prescription glasses and frames, watches, jewelry, luggage, polo shirts, underwear, jeans, team jerseys, purses, etc.
We’re talking about the top quality “copies” of the most famous brands you can find in your hometown shopping mall at a small fraction of their list price. Be prepared to bargain hard (you should NEVER pay the asking price) and to throughly inspect your purchases for correct sizes, proper operation, stitching, and so on. It will also help if you prepare in advance a list of items you’d like to buy, including pictures, prescriptions, colors and sizes.
Food
It should not surprise anyone that Chinese food is considered to be one of the four greatest culinary achievements of our civilization.
It is also not a surprise that the so-called Chinese food that is served in the American and European restaurants is a far cry from the real stuff you can taste in China. In fact, many “Chinese” dishes that are so familiar to my fellow Americans simply do not exist in China.
One thing is for certain – while in China, you must stay away from the “mass tourism” restaurants and find a place that you will enjoy on your own. Yelp and TripAdvisor are full of suggestions for every location, price, cuisine type, etc. Be prepared to struggle a bit while ordering the food – the help staff’s English language skills leave a lot to be desired. Some restaurants offer illustrated menu’s, which assist a lot. It also helps to look around the restaurant and see what other people are eating. If it is looks good, then point a finger and order it!
My favorite dishes include the Beijing Duck (of course!), dumplings, fresh seafood (you pick the fish from the aquariums and have it cooked to order), hotpot (you choose the ingredients and cook them at your table in a boiling broth), Sichuan-style spicy vegetables, noodles, and many. many more!
The restaurant prices tend to be more than reasonable – we’ve had the most amazing dinners for about $10 – $25 per person.
Money / Credit Cards
No surprises here – most of the larger stores and restaurants will gladly accept your credit cards and you will see plenty of ATM’s that will give you the local cash. Also, you can / should bring some US cash, which you can either exchange or use to buy items at the markets (see the Shopping section above). How much cash to bring? This depends entirely on your shopping habits – I’ve seen some couples spend $2000 – $3000 during a 3-day shopping expedition in Shanghai.
Tourist Attractions
Let’s not forget why you really want to visit China: beautiful nature, friendly people, exploding economy and thousands of years of immensely rich history, culture, tradition, and architecture that you can see, touch and experience in the Middle Kingdom, also known as the People’s Republic of China.
It is impossible for me to even begin to catalogue the attractions that are waiting for you in China. I just can recommend that you buy a good travel guide book and get all of your senses ready for an amazing experience!
Keep on Traveling!
LenkaTraveler
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